How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I do such things to them, I know, even when I don't intend to. But I cannot admit this to my wife or children. My wife would not understand. I cannot really say to my wife: "I'm sorry." She would think I was apologizing. My wife and I cannot really talk to each other about the same things anymore; but I sometimes forget this and try. We are no longer close enough for honest conversation (although we are close enough for frequent sexual intercourse). (3.107)
The members of the Slocum family say and think different things. What's holding them back from speaking what's truly on their minds? Wouldn't things just be so much easier if people were more honest with each other?
Quote #8
My error, I think, is that I always speak to her as I would to a grown-up; and all she wants, probably, is for me to talk to her as a child. (4.6)
Slocum is unable to communicate effectively with his daughter. In fact, when he speaks to her sometimes, he feels his comments come from a dark corner of his soul he doesn't tap into often. How can he tell his daughter that she is the most marvelous teenage girl in the world when he believes there are others who clearly outshine her? He also feels their roles are reversed, with him as the child and her as the adult. Does Slocum truly depend on her?
Quote #9
We have brisk, Socratic dialogues, he and I, on just about everything (the lines fly crisply in rhythmic questions and answers), and we both enjoy them. (With my daughter, I have arguments and demoralizing discussions that tend to become overladen with personal imputations and denials, even when she starts out discussing, objectively and dispassionately, life and its meaning or her friends or mine. She has many comments to make about the people my wife and I know, as though they were any of her business.) I am Socrates, he is the pupil. (Or so it seems, until I review some of our conversations when I am alone, and then it often seems that he is Socrates. (5.104)
Such a difference in communication between father and son, and father and daughter. Slocum feels more at ease when he is speaking with his son, and the two can engage in highly intellectual conversations. When he has a conversation with his daughter, it always ends with someone feeling upset.